Saturday, May 5, 2012

28 weeks!! The 3rd Trimester and pre-term contractions

Whew what a week! It has definitely been stressful to say Baby girls thinks its funny to play games and really stress mommy out. I've been having irregular contractions since before my last ob appointment (aside from the usual Braxton Hicks). At that point they were only like 1-3 a day and random if they did happen. They've had me being cautious about my activity and trying to take it easy when i'm done if I need to be doing things. Over the weekend we got a lot of stuff done around the house and it ended up being a little too much. So I parked my butt and made sure I was drinking a LOT of water. I was feeling a little better, nothing more than the usual cervical pressure and random few cramping/contractions. Monday was another story. I woke up feeling REALLY crampy, like those awful menstrual cramps that are not fun, which was just like early labor for me with Brayden. Needless to say I did a whole lot of NOTHING the entire day, even laid down and napped when Bray did and drank over a gallon of water. Things didn't really get too much better. although I had the dull ache feeling all day I only had like 12 contractions total from morning till I went to bed. Not the best thing since I hadn't even hit 28 weeks yet. *sigh* That night was not very good so I decided I HAD to call the ob in the morning.

Fortunately I got a hold of my favorite nurse Shannon. The ob had told me before that if I was feeling any changes in pressure of contractions to call but I wanted to know at what point I should really be concerned. As expected they wanted me to head to labor and delivery to be put on the monitors. So Jason came home early from work and we dropped Bray off at my parents (HUGE thank you to them again) and headed down to Cooper hospital. It must of been labor and triage day b/c there was actually a line for triage and we had to wait like 45 minutes to even be taken back. But on the positive side since they were busy and there so overflow they put us in a regular labor room instead of triage to be monitored and it was MUCH more comfortable for me, Jason has a nice chair to sit in and there was a tv while we waited.

The monitor was showing mild contractions but fortunately they weren't super strong and or following a specific pattern like I had been feeling. They did do a cervical check and my cervix was feeling about 1cm/75% effaced. uggh. NOT what i wanted to hear. A week prior i was 25% so that's definitely a big jump. On the positive side I was not dilated.. thank god! While they did the exam they also did a few swabs including the FFN (fetal fibronectin test) to determine if I would be going in to labor soon. I swear it took what felt like FOREVER for it to come back. Thankfully it was NEGATIVE! A small victory but great news. They decided that I needed to have another cervical check before I was sent home just to make sure there were no changes while we were there. A different dr actually did the check and said i was still measuring the same as when I arrived, so that was a relief. Since my contrax were so random and not very strong they didn't feel that it was appropriate to keep me and start any meds at that point. I was given orders to follow up with the ob in one week unless they got really strong.

The sexyness that is a hospital gown lol

Since then my body's been all over the place. Sometimes I feel okay, sometimes the pressure is intense. But i know her position affects that a lot. Fortunately she is still laying transverse which is the best possible scenario at this point. One night this week the cramping was so painful it woke me up a few times that night. I do follow up with the ob on Tuesday, I'm just praying we can get through the weekend with out having to head back to l&d (especially with this super moon we are having lol) I'm anxious and a little nervous about my appt on Tuesday. I'm afraid there have been more changes. I have been being really careful about not doing as much as possible and relaxing and have been drinking at least a gallon of water each day. I am concerned they're going to put me on full blown bed rest but we will have to do whats best for Bella. The dr said that bed rest isn't scientifically proven to make a difference and that they order it (or any form of it ) just to play it safe, and that drinking water can help deter things. Keeping everything crossed for Tuesday!!! My goal at this point is to get to 35/36 weeks and avoid as much NICU time as possible. Maybe all this worrying will be for nothing in the end, and I will be more than happy with that but for now every week that I don't have cervical changes is a milestone!